Tag Archives: Interior Ministry

A total of two combat helicopters are patrolling the airspace over the city of Slavyansk in the east-Ukrainian Donetsk region, an Itar-Tass reporter said in an eyewitness account from the place where, according to a notice posted on Facebook by Ukraine’s acting interim Interior Minister Arsel Avakov, an anti-riot operation had begun to suppress the protests, the participants in which demanded federalization of the country.

Once in every five minutes, a helicopter would appear in the sky over. Block posts had been put up on the streets.

In the meantime, an action of protest continued near the building of the city police department that was seized by the protesters the other day. Barricades had been put up there and people several armed people in fatigues were guarding them.

Another 50 or so men wearing the St George’s ribbons attached to the lapels of their coats came to the place to organize a picket. They chanted ‘Russia!Russia!’ at regular periods of time.

Policemen were not seen on the streets. Instead, a car equipped with a public address system was cruising the city and launching public appeals to the city’s population.

“Arise, don’t be cowards, they’re preparing an attack on us!” a voice coming out of the amplifier said.

Cell phones were fully operational in the downtown areas.

On the whole, the situation remained quiet but knotty at the time of reporting and there were no clear signs that an operation prepared by the organized Ministry Forces might be coming up.

People were moving freely around the city and shopping but a number of shops were closed.

The Donetsk regional prosecutor’s office confirmed the information that its building was seized overnight.

A group of unknown masked young men with batons in hands broke into the building of the prosecutor’s office. About 40 people began to barricade entrances with furniture. After negotiations, the people left the administrative building.

A criminal case is opened on charges of mass disorders. The Criminal Code prescribes five to eight years’ imprisonment for such actions.

As was earlier reported, unknown people got into the Donetsk regional prosecutor’s office overnight, but shortly after that, law enforcers arrived on the scene and removed all from the building, local media reported.

Meanwhile, a group of unidentified people seized a district police station in Slavyansk, the Donetsk region, on Saturday, an official at the Donetsk regional police department told Itar-Tass on Saturday. “Unknown people have seized a district police station today. They were in camouflage uniform. They remain there now,” he said.

Ukrainian parliament-appointed Interior MinisterArsen Avakov has warned about “tough response actions” against those who have seized the police station.

“Armed people in camouflage uniform have seized a district police station in Slavyansk. Response will be very tough here,” Avakov said. A special police group was sent to Slavyansk, he said.

The Ukrainian Interior Ministry would respond toughly to attempts to destabilize the situation, especially in the southeast of the country, the ministry said in a statement on its website on Saturday.

“The Interior Ministry will toughly respond to attempts to intentionally destabilize the situation, violation of public order and mass disorders all over Ukraine’s territory, particularly in regions, where special operations are conducted to settle the situation the Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkov regions. All who will violate the law, irrespective of declared slogans and party affiliation, will be detained,” the statement reads.

The ministry warned that a “serious” article of the Ukrainian Criminal Code would be applied to organizers of protests.

The minister told a news conference held at the Interior Ministry’s headquarters in central Cairo that investigations proved the involvement of an”Arab country,” in reference to Qatar. in the case in which deposed president Mohamed Morsi and others, including presidential secretary Amin el-Serafy, are accused.

The Minister told the news conference that the accused conspired to seize a large number of defense documents , reports and files connected with the Armed Forces armament and national security and agreed to assign leading MB member Serafy, who is held in connection with the case which used to be kept inside a safe in one of the presidential palaces and carry them to an office of the MB in preparation for sending them to an intelligence agency which had been in close contact with them at that time and which supports the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood with the aim of destabilizing Egypt and undermining it.

Investigations revealed that Serafy carried the top secret materials outside the presidential palace and kept them with his daughter Karima before going into hiding and later being arrested on December 17, the minister said. These documents were delivered to an MB member called Mohamed Adel Kelany, an air attendant who hid them in his home in Nasr City, he said.

According to the minister, Kelany was detected while meeting with MB members in charge of smuggling the information including Karima and Ahmed Ismail Thabet who were arrested at dawn today having in their possession classified reports of sovereign and supervisory institutions. He disclosed that those involved in the smuggling plot were MB member Alaa Sablan, a Palestinian who lives in Qatar, in addition to MB member Ahmed Abdu Afifi, MB member Asmaa al-Khatib, a worker at the Rasd network who fled to Malaysia and MB member Khaled Hamdy Radwan, the son of detained MB leading figure in Gharbia Hamdy Radwan.

The minister said that upon directives by Serafy to his daughter and the other members of the mentioned group, copies of the classified materials were made and kept on a flash memory and Sablan was ordered to travel to Qatar to arrange for air attendant Kelany to transfer the documents to the country. According to the revealed information Sablan traveled to Turkey on December 23 and from there to Qatar where he met with Ibrahim Helal from Al Jazeera news channel who arranged for a meeting between him and a senior Qatari official to agree on delivering the original copies of the classified documents after smuggling them to either Turkey, Lebanon or Qatar in return for getting a sum of 1.5 million dollars. The Qatari official gave the man a down payment of 50,000 dollars of which 10,000 were sent to Afify through Radwan.
The Minister said that the members of the group who are in Egypt were already arrested after arrest warrants were issued for them by the prosecution. He said that the classified documents that Kelany had in his house included information about the defense ministry, the national security authority, the administration supervisory authority, the justice ministry and the public security authority.

Afify and Radwan are now being interrogated by the state security prosecution, he said.

Egypt‘s Interior MinistryYesterday announced that security forces killed a key suspect in the Jan. 24 car bombing outside the Cairo Security Directorate. According to the ministry’s statement, Mohamed al Sayed Mansour al Toukhi was killed during a shootout with authorities in Cairo’s Ain Shams district.

The statement described al Toukhi, also known as Abu Obaida, as “one of the most dangerous terrorist elements.”

The killing of al Toukhi comes a day after the Interior Ministry announced the arrest of Mohammed Durri Ahmad al Taliawi. Al Taliawi was allegedly involved in a bombing attack that killed one person outside a movie theater on Jan. 24 in the Cairo area.

Four separate bombings, including the car bombing outside the Cairo Security Directorate, were reported on Jan. 24. Ansar Jerusalem (Ansar Bayt al Maqdis) originally claimed responsibility for all of the bombings before later backtracking on some of the smaller attacks that had been claimed by a separate group called Ajnad Misr.

Ansar Jerusalem has yet to comment on the reported death of al Toukhi or the arrest of al Taliawi. Ansar Jerusalem last confirmed the death or arrest of one of its members in a statement released to jihadist forums on Jan. 2.

Meanwhile, four suspected al Qaeda members were referred to trial yesterday over their involvement in plots to carry out attacks in Egypt, including against the US and French embassies. The arrest of three members of the cell, which has been linked to the Nasr City terror cell, was announced by Egypt’s interior minister in May 2013.

The fourth member of the cell, Dawud al Asadi, is still free.

In May 2013, Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim described Asadi vaguely as “the head of Al-Qaeda in some west Asian countries.” As my colleague Thomas Joscelyn has previously noted, Dawud al Asadi is a known alias of Muhsin al Fadhli, the head of al Qaeda’s network in Iran.

Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets of Turkey demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan amid a widening corruption scandal rattling his government. There are reports of tear gas and clashes with police in Istanbul.

Over 5,000 people gathered in Istanbul’s Kadikoy district and some 1,000 in the Besiktas district on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reports. Protesters have also gathered in the capital of Ankara, as well as in Izmir and other cities. Ruptly news agency says hundreds took to the streets of Istanbul.

Police in Istanbul have fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. At least four people have been arrested, according to Firat news agency.

Late on Wednesday, Erdogan announced a major cabinet reshuffle, replacing 10 key ministers. This came soon after the resignation of interior, economy, and environment ministers over a high profile corruption investigation. Resigned Environment Minister Erdogan Bayraktar turned against the Turkish leader, urging him to step down.

The scandal and ensuing feud between Erdogan and the judiciary have reignited anti-government protests against Erdogan’s 11-year rule within the past week.

The protesters rallying in Istanbul have shouted slogans such as “Three ministers’ resignation is not enough, the whole government should resign,” as well as ” corruption is everywhere” and “resistance is everywhere,” Xinhua reported.

More than 10 political parties and organizations have called for the protest.

The graft scandal poses an unprecedented challenge to his 11-year rule, which survived a massive anti-government demonstration that swept the nation in mid-2013.

Dozens of people have been arrested in the ongoing corruption investigation, including the head of state-run Halkbank. The government responded by purging police investigators describing the probe as a “dirty game.” Erdogan claimed it was a plot by foreign and other anti-government forces ahead of the March local elections.

According to Hurriyet newspaper, up to 550 police officers – including senior commanders – have been dismissed nationwide in the past week by now former Interior MinisterMuammer Guler.

A statement from the ministry said gunmen opened fire on a car carrying Lt. Col. Mohammed Mabrouk of the national security agency, killing him on the spot near his home in the eastern Cairo suburb of Nasr City. Mabrouk worked in the agency’s branch in charge of monitoring the Muslim Brotherhood.

The security official said Mabrouk was hit by seven bullets in his chest and head fired by gunmen whom witnesses described as masked. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

Lt. Col. Mohammed Mabrouk, the main witness In case of morsi espionage and colluding with the Americans and Hamas assassinated Before the trial began Six days .

The first spy Photo, prison uniform

Mabrouk is one of the most senior security officers to be targeted and killed in Cairo.

In September, the interior minister, who heads the security forces, survived a suicide car bombing shortly after he left his home in the same neighborhood where Mabrouk was killed.

He added that policemen will be ready to react speedily to potential violence in the vicinity of the trial’s venue, which is expected to be held in a police academy south of Cairo.

A security source said that around 5,000 policemen will be deployed to protect the site of the trial.

According to the source, army troops will take part in protecting the venue.

Egyptian authorities have already beefed up security measures across the country ahead of the trial.

In Cairo, 22 armored vehicles took their positions in central Cairo’sTahrir Square. Armed vehicles and personnel carriers have also been deployed outside the Ittihadiya presidential palace in eastern Cairo.

Army and police also reinforced security measures around vital institutions, worship places and the Suez canal ahead of the trial.

“Yes, he’s been arrested and details will soon be released,” the source told Reuters.

The state news agency MENA said Erian was arrested in New Cairo but gave no further details.

Local media circulated a photo of what they described as the moment he was arrested, showing a smiling Erian standing next to a bed with two packed duffle bags.

The Muslim Brotherhood Group was banned and many of its leaders have been detained and charged with inciting violence since the army, prompted by mass protests, deposed Islamist president Mohamed Mursi on July 3.

Pictures of MB leader Essam El-Erian after the his arrest this morning

At least 1,000 people, including security forces, died in the violence that followed Mursi’s ouster. Hundreds of his supporters were killed when police forces stormed two protest camps, calling for Mursi’s reinstatement, on August 14.

An Egyptian court in September banned the Muslim Brotherhood group and seized their funds in a bid to crush the movement, which the government accuses of inciting violence and terrorism.